Fatlogic

Are you having a hard time keeping spam under control?  I started using Spamnet from Cloudmark to save me from the drudgery of having to weed out the spam in my inbox every morning.  When I first got the program it was catching about 25% of the spam but now, after a few new releases, it's catching almost everything.  Today there were 42 emails in my Outlook inbox when I arrived at work.  Spamnet got rid of 37 pieces of spam with no false positives and it only missed 2.  So far Spamnet has caught 3853 pieces of spam!

Do lawyers use weblogs?

Instant Messaging: How I Use it and Why I Love It

I find IM to be an indispensable tool and I've been using it long enough to have a 6-digit ICQ number. I am logged in to 4 IM networks constantly and my friends, clients, and colleagues are there with me.

My company makes extensive use of IM. We work in a close, deadline driven environment and IM is great for sending links, short questions, and wisecracks. While a co-worker is on the phone with a client, I can send a quick IM with an additional question to ask without interrupting the flow of the conversation. Or, if I'm on the phone I can ask other questions of my co-workers without having to put the caller on hold.

Aside from my co-workers I am connected to many resources who are more than happy to assist me when I need help. This assistance is a two way street as I make myself available to others as well. Need a pointer to a technical reference; feeling rusty on some arcane JavaScript method, help is just an IM away.

IM is also a great networking tool. I have made myself available to total strangers in need of technical assistance, answering questions about Macromedia Flash, Apache, PHP, etc. Some of these people have become good friends and I have been able to ask them for help as well. It's also interesting to meet people from other countries. I have IM friends from Australia, England, and India.

I make my IM information to anyone who wants it. There have been very few instances of people abusing IM and if it does happen it's very easy to add them to my ignore list. I use Yahoo! and Imici to manage my IM environment. I like the Yahoo! interface the most so I always have that open. I didn't like the clutter of having 4 clients open in the tray so I use Imici to connect to AOL, MSN, and ICQ.

IM etiquette is a big part of why IM works for me. These points may not be universal, but I have found the following to be true:
It's ok to ignore an IM until you have time to respond.
It's ok to say 'brb' and not come back.